A Year of Blogging: April 11, 2011

April 11 has many celebrations. It is 'Eight Track Tape Day'. I can't comment on that, because I don't remember eight tracks. I know, I'm showing my age (or lack thereof). I have maybe seen an eight track somewhere, but I've never listened to them. I don't know what an eight track player looks like. Not much point blogging about it. April 11 is also Barbershop Quartet Day and National Submarine Day. Neither really inspires me. Tomorrow, however, there are two wonderful things I wanted to blog about, so I'm going to borrow one of them for today. April 12 is National Grilled Cheese Day. Or as my family might call it "the day Amy will cook". My mother went back to working outside the home when my sister started school. When we were in high school, we had to help Mom with the cooking. She usually spent Sundays preparing meals for the coming week. Occasionally there were nights Mom didn't have covered, and then it fell to my sister and I to make dinner. On my sister's night, she would get out the cookbooks. She planned out her meal, bought what she needed when we went grocery shopping, and came home from school and started creating. She made wonderful meals. The family raved. When it was my night to make dinner, I made grilled cheese sandwiches. Sometimes I mixed it up and added ham to the sandwiches. I opened a can of soup, and voila! Dinner was served! The family groaned. My father once said I better either marry someone with a lot of money to hire a cook, or find someone who liked to cook. Mom amended it with 'or someone who likes grilled cheese'. The family was convinced that grilled cheese was the only thing I could cook. Just because I'd had some mishaps- like trying to do a baked potato in the microwave and setting the timer for four potatoes, even though I was only making one. My poor dad tried to eat that- he hates wasting food. He would have needed a chainsaw to cut through it. And then there were the meals mom had so carefully prepared. All I had to do was cook them. And I would burn them. Everyone just shook their heads. When it was time for my bridal shower, my sister had everyone bring a recipe. I also received a lot of cookbooks. Apparently word that I 'couldn't' cook had spread! I still have some of those cookbooks, and I haven't used them. See, the thing is, I can cook. I have never enjoyed it, but I can do it. As a teenager, I always had my nose in a book. I would put dinner in, and get caught up in my homework or my book, and forget to check it. I have never seen the point of putting a lot of effort into a meal. To me, the biggest waste are the holiday meals: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter. You cook all day, and the meal is over in 10 minutes. And what do you have to show for it? A sink full of dishes, and you haven't enjoyed the day. My mother and sister love to do the holiday meals. But they love to cook. I cook because it's necessary. So the nights it was my night to cook as a teenager, grilled cheese and soup was fine. It was filling, it wasn't junk food, and it was easy. I still make grilled cheese a lot. It is not unusual for me to have a grilled cheese a couple times a week, either for lunch or dinner. It is my go-to when I don't know what to make, or can't decide what I want. Sometimes I go for the ham and cheese. If I want to really class it up, I do the grown up grilled cheese. It is sour-dough bread, swiss cheese (or Vermont white cheddar), turkey, bacon, and apple (fuji or gala works well). The apple should be should be sliced thinly. It gets hard to flip because it's very full. I have one of those spatulas with the prongs that slides around the sandwich. You probably could cook it as an open face, with the two pieces of bread both getting cooked at the same time, then just put it together at the end. There's something comforting about grilled cheese. The crunch of the bread, the cheese oozing out of the sandwich when you cut it. It tastes good when I feel lousy, and it tastes good when I feel fine. I've been perfecting my skills in the past couple of weeks. Sydney loves grilled cheese, and I just might have to make one for her. I know she would be very impressed with Aunt Amy's culinary skills! And in case you are wondering, Erich is fine eating Grilled Cheese as often as I do!